


supernova

by mint_choco_icecream



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Sci-Fi Elements, a lot of attempted metaphors, and also off-screen, basically from their first meeting to their last, but that’s why we love him, its very gentle I promise, jung jaehyun is whipped, little snippets through time, pls don’t be scared by the MCD tag, shuttle living, the word stars is mentioned 21 times so there’s that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28956213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mint_choco_icecream/pseuds/mint_choco_icecream
Summary: The first time Jaehyun met Sicheng, he was six years old and the sky was on fire. But even then, the stars glittering in Sicheng’s eyes burned brighter.Jaehyun was seventy-nine years old when he finally saw that glow fade out, when he saw constellations and patterns lose their light, and when his world burned once more.
Relationships: Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun
Comments: 10
Kudos: 37
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	supernova

_binary stars- two or more stars orbiting around their common center of mass_

The first time Jaehyun met Sicheng, he was six years old and the sky was on fire. It was almost fitting, that as everything around them crashed and burned and terrified screams echoed in the scorching air, that as the remainder of the human race stood, they were finally united by their desperation to abandon their home planet as it was ripped apart.

It was almost fitting that they were drawn to one another through the thousands of bodies pushing and pulling and clamoring to get aboard the vessel that would take them away to salvation. It was shining a blinding silver against the orange haze, stretching up as far as his eyes could see. A new home, a second chance.

“It’s the end of the world.” Hushed, reverent whispers over his head and Jaehyun had smiled as his father pressed his warm, gloved hands against his ears to block out the words. _The end of this world, maybe, but they could always just build another one._

The air was hot and stale through his mask and the plastic itched his nose. He felt sweat rolling down his back and beading on his forehead. And everyone was just so loud, so close, so desperate, so _much_. Jaehyun had ducked under his father’s arms and ran as fast as his short legs would take him, pushed his way through the thick crowds with no real destination other than to get _away._

Because maybe he wasn’t ready just yet to leave everything behind. Maybe he wasn’t ready for everything to change. 

And then he saw him through the maze of bodies and arms and legs and wrapped up bundles of nothing and everything. Amidst all the people, amidst the fear and confusion, the whispers and the screams, Jaehyun stopped short and stared at the little boy looking back at him with eyes dark and wide and curious. 

Sometimes, Jaehyun wondered what would have happened if he’d never left the safety net of his father’s arms, if he’d turned just a little bit to the left or the right, and ended up somewhere entirely different. He likes to think that somehow, like stars orbiting around one another, like the pull of gravity, inevitable and unstoppable, _somehow,_ they would have always found their way to one another.

Jaehyun had always been shy and quiet, but he didn’t even think twice before he pushed his way to stand in front of the boy and asked his name. 

“Dong Sicheng,” he replied after a pause, almost warily eyeing Jaehyun, but the crinkling at the corners of his eyes gave away his smile hidden under his mask. Sicheng was smaller than him physically, standing almost perfectly in line with his nose. His dark hair was messy, eyes drooping and sleepy, and Jaehyun wanted nothing more than to take him into the VIP suite that he knew was waiting for him and his father and curl up with him and find out everything there was to know about him. 

“Look at the stars,” Sicheng blurted, voice tense and hurried, as if he was afraid Jaehyun would disappear if he didn’t demand his attention. But even all those years ago, Sicheng didn’t have to try because Jaehyun was already focused entirely on him, at how his eyes shone a brilliant silver as he gazed up at the expanse above. 

“What about them?” Jaehyun had asked simply, but he didn’t look up to see the stars that he’d learned to love and just as easily had learned to hate. Besides, why look up at the faded, dying stars dotted through the galaxy when he could stare at the one glowing with such a gentle light right in front of him? 

Jaehyun wanted them to just stay like that, with people pushing against them, loud voices filtering over their soft conversation, their hearts racing with anxiety and excitement, the feeling that _something_ was about to happen. 

But just as Sicheng opened his mouth, Jaehyun felt strong arms wrapping around him again and a firm voice reprimanding him for running away. Even though he wanted to protest, the words were just on the tip of his tongue, _not yet, please, just five minutes,_ Jaehyun let himself be lifted up and taken away, and he let Sicheng go.

.

Sometimes, Jaehyun forgot what the earth looked like. Sometimes, he forgot what it was like to gaze down at the wreckage of the planet from the safety of the shuttle, he forgot all about the smoke and the bombs and the destruction. Sometimes, he forgot his mum, buried under the debris at the heart of the storm. 

His mum, who had shown him how easy it was to fall in love with a world that was falling apart. She was someone who had loved adventure, who had loved the stars, but most of all, who had loved so fearlessly, so genuinely, so completely. And she had gotten hurt. Jaehyun remembered her crying: he remembered the divorce, he remembered not getting to see her, not getting to live with her. 

He remembered his father hating her, screaming at her; he remembered him getting drunk when she died and how Jaehyun had run away to visit her grave because his father refused to let him go to her funeral. And Jaehyun remembered hating the stars because she had loved them, because how dare they shine on without her?

Sometimes, Jaehyun thought it was better to forget.

.

Jaehyun was thirteen when he met Sicheng for the second time and he didn’t make the mistake of letting him go again. 

Schoolmates, classmates, friends. They started all over at a distance, sharing furtive glances across the plain, white halls and bumping into one another in the cafeteria, small smiles and tentative, almost hesitant touches. But they were so young and they had nothing but time. Some binary stars orbit at a distance, relishing comfort and familiarity while travelling a path they've traced thousands of times, remaining constant and unchanged. But Jaehyun knew he and Sicheng were different.

Best friends, soulmates. It came so easily for them, so naturally, so perfectly. Jaehyun learnt everything about Sicheng, he memorized his moods and mannerisms until he could trace the patterns of the stars in his eyes and feel the rhythm of his heartbeat as if it was his own. They stayed next to one another as if they were meant to be there, and maybe they were. Maybe they were always meant to find another and go through life right at each other's side. Because other types of binary stars stay so close, they glow as one.

.

It could take billions of years, they said, for binary stars to collide with one another. Some are content simply orbiting and dancing around each other, drawing random shapes across the universe and fading without notice once their time is up. But others aren’t so easily satisfied, and despite everything, Jaehyun had always been greedy. Not for himself, but for Sicheng.

“I’m not worth it,” Sicheng had managed to convince himself, the words thick and heavy, dripping with resolute acceptance and firm belief. But Jaehyun could never understand. How could Sicheng not see how he was worth _everything_ , how he burned with the light of a thousand stars, how he could rip the very fabric of space and time to shreds? How could he not believe in the power he held in his gentle eyes, how every inch of his skin burned with stardust, how he was the single reason Jaehyun had managed to fall in love with stars again?

And under the faded glow of thousands of glittering stars and planets and galaxies and universes, curled against one another in the miniscule pod in their little shuttle launched into space, looking out at the entire world around them, Jaehyun had never wanted to prove that Sicheng mattered so much. 

Because Sicheng was worth so much more than he liked to believe and that day, Jaehyun made himself a promise. Anything, _everything,_ he would do it, and he would do it for him. He would give up everything, even if it meant burning himself up in the process and even if it meant giving everything he was capable of. If it meant getting to see Sicheng shine... if it meant getting to see how he would burn and how he would set the universe on fire, it would be worth it. Because maybe then, Sicheng would believe in himself too. 

Billions of years and improbably perfect configurations of positions and masses and speeds, that’s what it would take to make binary stars collide. Jaehyun didn’t care about that. All he knew was that somehow, he and Sicheng had always managed to defy the odds, conquered the impossible and created their own destiny. Together. 

.

Jaehyun can name exactly one time it was awkward between them, and it was quite possibly the worst time for it to be so. Sicheng had looked up at him, a gentle, knowing smile adorning his features, and Jaehyun had felt nothing but love. Because suddenly, Sicheng was no longer a little boy, standing amidst the crowds, tired and lost. 

He had grown up right in front of Jaehyun’s eyes, right next to him, and he had barely even noticed as his jawline sharpened and his face filled out and his shoulders broadened. It was like seeing him all over for the first time, almost as if he was a completely different person. But this was _his_ Sicheng, the same one he snuck out to talk to at all hours in the night, the same one that held him when he told him about his mum, the same one who loved adventure, who loved the stars, but most of all, who loved so fearlessly, so genuinely, so completely. 

“Why here?” was all Sicheng asked as he shifted his gaze from Jaehyun to the skyline where the artificial setting sun met with the depths of the ocean and burnt a passage straight through. Jaehyun was silent for a moment and the only sounds were the soft murmur of the scattered crowds around them and the comfortable crashing of the waves against the white rocks. 

Jaehyun leaned to pick one of the rocks off the ground, sliding the smooth surface over in his hands and staring at the name and date printed at the bottom. 

“These rocks...” Sicheng started, voice strained with the weight of his words as his eyebrows drew together. “They were people, weren’t they?” A whisper. Gentle. He had always been so gentle. 

Cemeteries were a thing of the past; there simply wasn’t enough space or energy on the shuttle to maintain them. So instead, bodies were cremated and the ashes were turned into simple stones, kept with the families until names and faces were forgotten or until people just stopped caring, and then they were dumped at the beach. It was almost unfair, for something so cruel to be so beautiful. 

“You know why we’re here,” Jaehyun had told him as he looked up at the sky, clear and light blue and fake. But it was still better than plain, white ceilings and empty halls. The wind ruffled his hair, and he closed his eyes to take a deep breath of the ocean air. 

It was perfect timing, a couple months after moving in together, their two-year anniversary as a couple, Sicheng had just gotten a promotion at his job. The perfect time to celebrate just one more thing. 

“I chose here because I believe death isn’t the end.” Sicheng had looked at him then, eyes wide and curious. Jaehyun felt his pulse racing, hammering and a lump in his throat as tears burned his eyes. “Sicheng.” He chewed on his lower lip to stop his smile and maybe that’s what gave Jaehyun the courage to finally blurt, “I’m asking you to be mine, will you stay by my side? In this life, and the next, and the one after that?”

But Sicheng was already smiling and his eyes were already shining and he was already shouting yes as he rushed into Jaehyun’s arms, and Jaehyun thought that he had never been so perfectly happy.

“Jaehyun,” Sicheng had murmured later, curled against his side and resting his head on Jaehyun's shoulder as Jaehyun played with the hairs at the back of his neck. His voice was tired, like he was already half-asleep, and Jaehyun knew in his gut that he was about to say something important.

“When I die, don’t turn my ashes into one of these stones.” He sniffled, and took a deep breath, the exhale soft against Jaehyun’s chest. “I’m scared,” and his voice was so small, so shy, Jaehyun felt a dull throbbing in his chest. “I don’t want to be forgotten like these people.”

And how naive, how utterly foolish it was for him to think for even a moment that he could be forgotten. That he would just pass through this world and fade without a trace, that he _didn’t matter_ , when he meant absolutely everything. 

When he had saved Jaehyun, when he had loved him, when he set his entire world on fire from the moment he entered it and Jaehyun could do nothing more than look on as it burned. He wanted nothing more. 

Sicheng was everything to him, and Jaehyun just wished he could believe that. 

.

“Did you know that black holes can create ripples in the universe when they orbit around one another?”

Sicheng had laughed, a tired, almost forced sound, but his eyes glimmered with such a gentle light, Jaehyun knew he understood the real meaning behind his words. Because even after thousands of years of technological advancement, people had yet to find a cure for death, they had yet to defy fate and destiny, they had yet to live forever.  
Supernova.

When some stars die, they just fade out, over millions and billions of years into _nothing_. Red giants, white dwarfs - Sicheng had taught Jaehyun all about them. But other stars, their explosions stretch to the ends of the universe and they burn brighter than any other star in the galaxy, even if just for a single moment. 

But, sometimes, binary stars turn into black holes when they die. 

So in the next life, and the one after that, and every single one after, Jaehyun had asked: will you stay by my side? Will you change the universe, will you continue our dance, eternally? 

"You already asked me that," Sicheng eventually replied, and Jaehyun knew he would smile if he could, but as it was, his gaze moved from Sicheng’s eyes to the ring glinting off his veined finger. His voice was tired, words slurred so badly Jaehyun had to lean in to hear him. And even still, with pain etching itself in the deep-set lines of his face, his scrunched forehead, his clenched jaw, he still looked up at Jaehyun with eyes shining gently.  
Jaehyun traced the pattern of the stars in his eyes. Not a single one was out of place. 

.

The crystal was small and delicate, almost perfectly clear with a gentle shimmer of silver streaking through. It was beautiful and just so _Sicheng_ that it made Jaehyun’s heart ache as he raised his trembling hands to clasp the necklace. 

His heart begged for Sicheng, to reach out to him, to talk to him, to hold him, to just see him one more time. Jaehyun was alone again, just like all those years ago when he’d run away. But even if he ran away this time, there’d be no Sicheng waiting to save him, there’d be no Sicheng to pull him into his arms and to comfort him, there’d be no one to share his life with. 

But Jaehyun found refuge in the thought that it wouldn’t be much longer before he would be reunited with his other half so they could spend every other lifetime together with one another. Not much longer now.

**Author's Note:**

> a huge thank you to my lovely beta Elle! ❤️ Thank you so much for everything, your advice and comments were incredibly helpful,, and I could never have done this without youu 🥺
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/mint_choco_17)  
> [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/mint_choco_icecream)


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